The Century: America's TIme - 1929-1936: Stormy Weather

Oh [Music] [Applause] be self-evident [Applause] mr. Goldman tear down this wall [Applause] [Music] it was May of 1932 practical unparalleled in the history of the country and something was very wrong in the land of plenty a day of bloodshed and riot there were those of us who felt that America was teetering on the brink of revolution for three years the Great Depression had tormented Americans now 20,000 Army veterans and their families came pouring in to Washington to find out what the government was going to do about it bearded ragged they were desperate you could see it in their eyes they'd been promised a bonus for their service in World War one but it was not due to be paid until 1945 the desperate veterans wanted their money now they recall the Bonus Army on July 28th the Bonus Army came to blows with Washington police shots were fired President Herbert Hoover barricaded himself in the White House and called out the troops soldiers have orders to burn down the unsanitary and illegal camp and the roaring flames sound of death knell to the fantastic bonus armor when the smoke cleared two veterans and an infant were dead the absolutely shameful the sacrifice of the young American boys left such an impression on me I have never forgotten it they were just trying to feed their families millions of Americans could no longer provide for their families with nowhere to turn for help they were angry and they were approaching their breaking point three years into the depression the American system was he in grave danger unless it could change and change quickly it might not survive bad times had arrived without warning after a decade of expanding prosperity almost overnight The Wall Street Crash of 1929 shattered America's confidence in its economy I was 11 years old but how well I remember it it was like the skies had grown dark thunder and all of the sudden faces were tragic and people were walking around in the hallways of our building and in the streets with with inquiring eyes and saying has it happened to you is it happened to us what is happening two living telegrams at that time and pretty soon you could feel a horror behind the door you was knockin when your knock on the door when the boys come out ya know who is it who is it I say I have a telegram well slider on the door silent or go away get away from me get away from me the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 was only the most visible sign of a massive economic crisis the crisis that spread quickly from Wall Street to Main Street Miriam Johnson was living in California when the Great Depression arrived at her house I was 11 when the crash came my father at that time along with a father a few friends owned a small grocery store one day he came home and and he laid two dollars on the table in the kitchen and he said no more store everything is gone that was the end for us it was the [Music] every day produce more bankruptcies more layoffs more people with less money in their pockets [Music] even US Steel a symbol of American industrial might since the turn of the century was brought to its knees in three years the entire full-time payroll was laid off 225,000 workers [Music] the Depression hit this country all it hit the farm areas it hit the cities we're just they're out of work and out of food and everybody was baffled you know nobody had ever had that experience before I had been saving for maybe five six years a piggy bank and money in a piggy bank nickels pennies dimes the most it turns out that I was the only one of the family that had any money because one day I came home and I grabbed hold of my piggy bank just to give it a shake and there was nothing in it my mother was looking at me and she said your father borrowed the money he has to go out to look for work and he needed money to go back home he came home and I didn't say anything but my eyes were face was swollen with tears my eyes were blinking with tears and my father took me in his arms and he said I'm sorry I had to have money but it's alone I'll pay it back to you he never did he know my family had exhausted all its credits with the local merchants and on one occasion my father came home and asked what was for dinner that night and my mother said there's nothing how how could that be how could there be nothing it was one of the few times in my life that I was fearful for myself fearful of losing what little they had left people rushed to the banks to withdraw their savings but the banks - were short of cash one year after the crash 800 of them had failed 9 million savings accounts were wiped out there was a janitor called George Kelley's who had $1,000 in the bank of the United States it had taken galleys 40 years to save $1,000 after spending two nights in two days in the pouring rain outside this shuttered locked back beating literally beating on the walls with his hands in frustration he realized he was never gonna see 10 cents of his money he went back to the basement where he lived and he hanged himself in despair that's what bank failures did they crushed tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of ordinary people like George Kelly's with their savings gone and layoffs increasing people were forced to sell their cars their furniture their wedding rings before long half the country's home mortgages were in default families across America found themselves facing eviction mmm my brother and I and my mother just couldn't stand to see it happen so we left my father there to face the auction is then we came home that evening and we met my father who told us yes the house was so it was gone and everything that we had had was no longer ours the land was gone the house was gone and we had 30 days in which time to move out [Music] and my mother sat on the side of the bed and cried was the first time I'd ever seen her crying I'll never forget that moment that's where our family was affected and we were not unique you know what hurt me most about it was the look of pain on my mother's and father's face I couldn't bear to look at them to look at this to look at their misery to look at their disgrace they felt they had only themselves to blame this was a different generation this was a generation that had grown up with the old faith the faith self realized the people had to stand on their own two feet they said the government's has failed me they said I'm to blame I failed in this American system of ours it's my fault [Music] one year after the crash 4 million American families were without any means of support worse they didn't know how to ask for help and their government didn't know how to provide it in 1930 the American people had almost no sense of the national government there was the post office occasionally you'd see a soldier on the street the national government had very little direct impact on the lives of ordinary Americans [Music] there were no no parachutes in those days there was no social security no unemployment insurance no nothing [Music] or on your own by 1931 hard times seemed to be everywhere but if you could still spare a dime you could slip into a glamorous world where the Roaring Twenties had never ended you could go to the Grand Lake Theatre I hear Horace Heidt and his orchestra play for half an hour then they'd have the Movietone news and then they'd have the feature story and then they would have Bugs Bunny or the equivalent comic and then that have the second feature by that time the orchestra was getting ready to play again if you spend about 6 or 7 hours for 15 cents there was no television there was only radio so this visual escape into a dark Theater you could literally forget your troubles and get happy many people try to dance their troubles away often to the carefree irresistible rhythms of a new generation of jazz music that was sweeping the country swing wing it honey child Susie Q's go into town and hum [Music] [Applause] [Music] now meet Richard calmer as Boston Blackie enemy to those who make him an enemy friend to those who have no friends many more were transfixed by the gripping dramas of radio during the Depression the radio was the one appliance people could not live without the watched event there was a shadow what evil lurks in the hearts of men shadow knows they're off the lights we're gonna clean the moat today you didn't know that they were standing on a stage reading from scripts you just thought they were doing it oh it's here well I liked most was to go into my room and turn off all the lights I didn't want any interference and just listen to it I fought the thought I was a little weird Nate always come in and turn the lights on and say what's wrong with you and I said nothing's wrong with me this is really wonderful great way to listen to it [Music] but sooner or later people had to turn the radio off they had to leave the movie theater and when they did the depression was still there awaiting he'd advanced upon the farmers of the South and Midwest in terrifying storms of dry dust it was one of the worst droughts in American history the land itself was blowing away they looked like a tornado coming big black clouds of dust coming across the desert there it was terrible you couldn't breathe you'd put a something over your face a handkerchief and try to breathe through it you spit out mud phone [Music] [Applause] [Music] 25,000 square miles of farmland became known as the Dust Bowl for farmers who'd been suffering through their own economic crisis since the 1920s it was the final blow leaving their farm houses and barns to rot they fled westward for the promised land California dust weary farmers joined millions of other panelist people who were wandering the country looking for a second chance the transportation of choice was the freight train riding the rails was dangerous the trains were patrolled by vicious guards but the price was right when it's gonna leave they give you the high ball and that's two shorts and alone man you better get ready then cause he's pulling out [Music] [Music] couple lives and sightless fools along the way I've taken sightless windows stare the empty streets no love beckons me save that which I've forsaken the anguish of my solitary [Music] the actor Robert Mitchum wrote his poem in 1932 and he was just another teenager inserts a Salvation a time there were so many people on the train that the train crew couldn't walk the tops I met former bankers college professors all sorts of people riding the freight trains a lot of them didn't really have a destination they were just trying to get away from where they work but everywhere they got to seem just as hopeless as the place they left behind numbers of towns that would arrest those people who came there there was particular concern about what we called the wild boys of the road President Hoover sent undercover agents to ride the rails and assess the danger one of them was a young law student named Melvin belli you saw part of America at that time that gave fear to everybody in Washington there's something wrong with the country and it's so wrong that these people are going to want a revolution strikes and protests were spreading becoming angry and more violent bill wheeler was a 19 year old truck driver when he witnessed a demonstration in New York I swear was just filled with mobs of people they were demonstrating it turned out for unemployment relief unemployment benefits and the police and the firemen were mowing him down with the fire hoses cops were beating him on the head it was unbelievable radical movements like the Communist Party were gaining influence and converts President Hoover misread the danger signals and still did nothing to ease the suffering we are convinced that we have overcome major financial crisis a crisis in severity on for some the loss of faith was so profound that they simply fled the country three years after Joseph Stalin had predicted the death of capitalism a hundred thousand Americans moved to the Soviet Union to help build communism there was work for anybody that wanted to work there was none of this going around with you had to hand in tears in your eyes begging for a job it seemed to be a land of great promise at that time [Music] this was the only time in history that more people were leaving America than coming to it in time the Great Depression spread like a virus far beyond American borders under watches signs of the political times play or blast on for the valley that's super popular in Germany the situation was becoming dangerous the depression only made worse the already harsh conditions brought on by Germany's loss he in World War one there was a few puffs there was mass unemployment and because of this server protests marches demonstrations street fighters they're unemployed people they walk through the town and they shouted slogans give us bread give us work by the Anki there was so much unrest so much disorder gasps - I know I know whew ah I needed a powerful leader a powerful man to lead us out of it [Music] the first time I saw the Nazi same arched around in town they said brown shirts on their uniforms and they had music and they had flags and I remember how it impressed me something military if you children belong along them and tried to sing their songs the leader of the Nazi movement knew instinctively that Germany suffering was his opportunity Adolf Hitler told the demoralized German that he could cure what ailed them [Music] [Applause] his speeches so arousing he started all this off quietly he died and he talked about ordinary citizens and he worked himself up saying something like our enemies say think we are the footmen also heard and I promise you I will erase all that we demand our place in the Sun which is rightly ours and I will eat you there I will eat you there I promise it I is analyzed under the movie Valentine in 1932 Hitler's rapidly growing Nazi Party took 37 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections though not a majority he had uphold all the other parties Hitler used his new strength to seize the chancellorship of Germany and destroy opposition to his rule On January 30th 1933 his followers celebrated his ascension to power with a torchlight victory parade through Berlin propelled by hard times the Nazi era had begun the procession moved on smoothly built em Strasse Martian music could be heard the torch lights Rev the gleaming and there was such strange light in the state [Music] enter versus atmosphere of a reality so much black magic it doubles it to allows a masses and such visit they forgot reason but he had charisma no doubt about more and he promised the people that they would get work people we're desperate you see people being desperate they will run after the man like it it's proposed I've comet primary organ for mr. Garland [Music] [Applause] [Music] 19:32 was also a year a decision for Americans Republican President Herbert Hoover campaigned for re-election only to find that everywhere he went his name had become synonymous with failure shantytowns of unemployed men were now called Hoovervilles newspapers were Hoover blankets empty pockets Hoover Flags the very first task of this country is to see that no man woman or child shall go home it was said of Hoover that even dogs took an instinctive dislike to him and in the 1932 campaign one man wired him vote for Roosevelt and make a unanimous California - 44 votes for Franklin dear old now New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt was the Democratic Party candidate he had been struck by polio in 1921 he was known more for his charm and his accomplishments most people were not sure what he meant when he promised a new deal to the American people neither was he but Roosevelt appeared optimistic confident and he wasn't Herbert Hoover stock campaign slogan physics happy baby ever again good that's right Roosevelt won in the greatest electoral landslide America had ever seen and he faced perhaps the greatest challenge ever presented to an American leader the four million unemployed of 1930 had turned into sixteen million by 1933 twenty-five percent of the American workforce I mean the American economy was in freefall colonists disagree to some extent on this but we could have lost everything in 1933 [Music] it was that bad hi Franklin Delano Roosevelt on inauguration day nearly a hundred thousand people braved a cold March morning to hear what the new president would do this great nation will endure as it has endured let me assert that magnificent resonance coming out we have nothing to fear but fear itself and everybody would look at each other they'd nod their head right and then you'd say my friends everybody could feel he was talking to him that was one of his friends that was one of his people and me a little black boy down in Georgia hearing that voice over the radio you know I felt it it wasn't that he told it to dad and daddy told it to me I told it to mama and man no he was talking to little Aussie sitting there listening to him he could through the magic of his voice and radio reach out and involve you in the great adventure of building making America work again Roosevelt moved decisively to restore confidence in the country's financial system in one daring move he closed the nation's banks and ordered the Treasury to rush them to billion dollars in new currency let me make it clear that the reaction was to his cozy the bank thank God somebody has come in and had done something when the banks reopened deposits easily exceeded withdrawals rescuing the banks was only the beginning in his first hundred days in the White House Roosevelt moved at a breathtaking pace regulating business helping farmers pumping new money into the economy it was the most massive intervention in the lives of the American people the country had ever known Roosevelt put people on the government payroll when private business didn't hire them fast enough the wild boys of the road became part of the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees and building roads across America they shipped us out to bottom of Grand Canyon would build trails you know for people coming in sightseeing we got $5 a month then they sent 25 home for your family live on his was the federal government stepping in to help people it may not have been enough in some cases it didn't help but somebody was trying and one had that feeling that maybe it was going to work [Music] millions of Americans had been helped in the first year of the New Deal but for millions more the year 1933 ended in frustration President Roosevelt had lifted their spirits but not their circumstances after a time the haunting thought could not be put down that maybe this Great Depression was never going to end but with the sense of rising expectations people are stirred out of their lethargy and in 1934 there is the most radical mood of any year of the Great Depression President Roosevelt had contributed to that radical mood when he became the first American president to say that labor had a right to unionize but businessman remained finally anti-union in the spring of 1934 emboldened dock workers closed ports all along the Pacific coast in San Francisco there strike turned violent [Music] we heard on the radio that all this terrible stuff was going on with a waterphone and my husband was down there and I remember my mother and I were frightened and very upset would would Harold make it it got so bad that two men were killed they were killed by bullets ostensibly from the police nobody really ever figured that one out totally Harold was right on the corner where one was killed shocked the city killings then used to shock people [Music] the funeral for the two murdered strikers drew 50,000 people that funeral so it's so shocked the city it was so impressive that was enough to infuriate the people of San Cisco so much they said we've had it every day we'll watch these launch Robin and seamen getting beaten and clubbed we've had it up to my eyebrows by God whatever it takes to win a strike we're gonna win it and they stopped all work even a barber says we refuse to give a haircut to anybody until the strike is over was sympathize with the Union we sympathize with the men and so they'd shut the port down shut the city down little stores closed until our boys win the city was quiet as hell nothing moved before solid days [Applause] the longshoremen won virtually all their demands encouraging workers across the country to move against management in 1934 there were more than 1800 strikes for union recognition coal miners steel worker well different people packing out they set up a bunch of starving seamen and longshoremen whether the forum and we could do it back in Pittsburgh what we could do in here we could do it there labor unrest was only one of Roosevelt's problems in 1934 economic recovery had stalled and critics complained that he'd gone too far the constitutionality of some New Deal programs were being challenged in the courts and business leaders were warning that FDR had steered the country recklessly to the left but Roosevelt knew that his program still hadn't reached millions of desperate Americans and he didn't know how long they would wait discontent and frustration gave rise to any number of demagogues including the charismatic radio priest father Charles Coughlin dr. Francis Townsend self-proclaimed advocate for the elderly radical Spellbinders who claimed the New Deal was dying during 1934 one of these would be saviors developed a national following and presidential ambitions he was called the kingfish senator and former Louisiana governor Huey Long after we told you people that Hoover was a numbskull the best entertainment you had was when Huey came to town to speak put it into plow a fella fired raw cotton everybody went to hear him well did they were for him or against him he was marvelous the Lord has answered the prayer he is called the barbecue he used such expressive language he said so one guess had to listen five million and when people listened many discover they liked what they heard what Huey Long was saying was that he was going to soak the rich and he was going to give that money to the poor his plan was never really carefully worked out and in his own state in Louisiana he fell notably short of redistributing the wealth but it had a kind of direct appeal that the more complex programs of the New Deal lacked and also provided a focus for the Animus against the rich that had been building during the years of the Great Depression long-promised every American a house a car a radio in return he wanted power absolute power you couldn't do anything in Louisiana as he got his okay he was vicious he told him no he'd knock you down he had built up a private police force he had shown his contempt for the democratic processes and that created a great deal of worry in Washington not just southerners but Midwestern farmers in New York factory workers were joining long share our wealth clubs by 1935 Franklin Roosevelt was privately calling Huey Long the most dangerous man in America they set up in cold gentle us down here to take charge when you have food riots you have the makings of a dictatorship don't think you wouldn't illa - you might vote the wrong way if he rose on votes thank you along with rising on a vote so painful to hear we long never got the chance to run for president he was cut down by an assassin in September 1935 by then President Roosevelt was hard at work on a populist agenda of his own pushing Congress to create the social security programs welfare for the poor and jobs for 8 million people on public projects of every description this was called the second hundred days and it reshaped American life the legislation of the second hundred days gives an underpinning to the economy that's not been there before there's now a system of unemployment compensation of old-age pensions the United States for the first time has a centralized banking system and by 1936 there are visible scenes of recovery six years after he lost his grocery store Miriam Johnson's father found a steady job with the Works Progress Administration he was so happy to get up in the morning my father was so happy even though the work by this time he wasn't a kid it was pick a travel work you know but he was so happy to have something to do and to get paid for it to me the Roosevelt era revolutionized the perception of what government owes the people and what its role is problems that he put in were imperative of that period and I think it was a godsend that we had him and we maintained the democracy that we had all cherished campaigning for a second term in 1936 Roosevelt told a cheering crowd you look happier today than you did four years ago and they were Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected by the greatest margin in the history of American politics in the four years since President Roosevelt had taken office America had experienced a revolution and it had been led by the President himself [Music] the New Deal programs of the Depression era transformed the country's landscape one project alone the Tennessee Valley Authority built dams brought electricity ended floods and lifted families out of poverty in seven states but as he took office for his second term in January 1937 Roosevelt's New Deal still had not completely overcome the depression in America by 1937 the depression in Germany was over Adolf Hitler had kept his promise to give the people work [Music] unemployed people disappeared practically overnight we're no young healthy man standing at the corners of Berlin and begging around for pennies he bled jobs we're happy the secret of Germany's new prosperity was rearmament there were plenty of jobs making powerful new weapons and building a highway system as much for tanks as for cars [Music] was also a kind of New Deal but he was preparing for war the first step came in March of 1936 when German troops marched unopposed into the Rhineland to reoccupy territory lost to France after the First World War [Music] was leading us to the place of the Sun and I sincerely and annas believed in all [Music] my father argument started in another of them said no fritz leaves that boy alone he can't help it took his so brainwashed and I started again was my mother what do you mean by brainwashing now of course I realize my hands were right but I it's all too late [Music] now Adolf Hitler would try to keep another promise to the German people to build a new German Empire one he said that would last a thousand years [Music] depression and desperation had unleashed a force that would alter the course of the 20th century we'll see that on the next episode of the century America's time I'm Peter Jennings thank you for joining us [Music] you [Music]

Channel: John F. McDonnell

Views: 1,537,818

Keywords: The History Channel (Organization), The Century: America's Time (TV Program), Peter Jennings Reporting (TV Program), Documentary (TV Genre), American Broadcasting Company (Organization)

Id: zSfzFWU5LbY

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 29 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/PastelFlamingo150]

Iirc, The Grapes of Wrath movie was one of the few American films allowed in the USSR because it showed the pitfalls of capitalism. But it backfired when people realized that even the poorest Americans could afford a car and travel freely.

[u/Raized275]

That seemed like a bad decision given hindsight.

[u/xxxJakkxxx]

That's depressing.

[u/leudruid]

Little details that never get mentioned in history class, like how many immigrants returned to Europe after trying to settle here.

[u/[deleted]]

Wasn't it that they moved BACK? As in, they came from that general area? It's the same thing Mexicans do or any traveling labor class does when there's an economic downturn in the US, go homewards.

[u/blazenpines]

The narrator begins speaking about the emigration to the soviet union at 19:40 in the video.

[u/nmi987]

that wasn't a good move, what followed was WW2

[u/[deleted]]

Their children would be American sleeper agents living in the Russian Far East during Cold War. That'd make a good thriller novel.

[u/[deleted]]

Interesting enough is that an high ranking official in the american government traveled to one of the more horrific gulag (magadan, I think) during the war.

He was impressive and called it an exeptional metod for Russia to tame it's vast wilderness with sturdy men akin to the american cowboys of old (parafrasing, it was something like this; source: Anne applebaum Gulag)